The two Supercars rivals came to blows on track in the closing stages of the 12 Hour, a spirited battle over position resulting in a race-ending moment for both at Griffins Bend.
Ojeda had been aggressively defending his position since The Chase, closing the door again on the pit straight before the climb up Mountain Straight where the pair made more contact.
Then, on the way into Griffins Ojeda ran wide, glancing the wall and then back into the path of Mostert who was right alongside.
Reflecting on the incident after the race, Mostert – who was in the STM car – said it was case of being too committed on the exit of Griffins Bend to avoid the Tigani car once it hit the wall.
“It’s just racing at the end of the day,” Mostert told Speedcafe.
“We’re both leaving nothing on the table and I thought we were in the box seat to do something pretty special.
“I mean, we had two laps of on fuel on those guys, but they were fighting, thinking they were going to make it. They told [Ojeda] to fight really hard and he’s pretty aggressive.
“I went around the outside into The Chase as he was saving a little bit, and he kind of ran into me so then so I pushed him back and then he was just running me to the pit wall.
“I gave him a nice push up Mountain Straight and tried to push him as hard as I could.
“I didn’t expect him to have a shunt. He ran a bit wide, but it wasn’t like he ran so deep and then went hit the wall and came back. It snapped pretty quick in front of me, he’s obviously gone to get on it and the rear has barked up and he’s put himself in the wall.
“But I was already committed to the exit and unfortunately I just couldn’t get out of the way. You wish you could go back a tenth of a second and make a different decision.”
Another Safety Car, and this one’s with less than an hour to go…
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— Intercontinental GT Challenge (@IntercontGTC) February 15, 2026
Ojeda, meanwhile, says it was unlikely either Mercedes would have made it home on fuel – and had they both been banking on a safety car, track position was crucial.
“He had two laps on us with fuel, but I don’t think if it ran green, with how hard we were pushing, either of us would have really made it on fuel anyway,” he explained.
“We were both basically waiting or hoping for a safety car to get us to the finish. At least that’s what my position was, and ultimately if I wanted to win the race, I had to keep Chaz behind me and hope for a safety car.
“So I’m going to defend as hard as I did and if I had my chance again, I’d still defend as hard as I as I did, because ultimately that was the only way that we were going to get any result in that race.”
Ryan’s criticism of Ojeda was that he shouldn’t have been fighting a fellow Mercedes driver given the manufacturer alliances in global GT racing.
Ojeda, a factory-supported Mercedes GT driver, countered that the alliances only go so far.
“Ultimately yes, it’s unfortunate that it happened with another Mercedes AMG,” he said. “But we’re still out there racing our own races.
“At the end of the day, we’re all racing for our teams and everyone that has put in the work, and that’s the way it goes sometimes.”
Ojeda also said the aggressive nature of his defence had nothing to do with setting a precedent for fellow Supercars driver Mostert ahead of the season-opener at Sydney Motorsport Park next weekend.
“I race to win always and that was our chance to win the race,” he said. “So I wasn’t going to let that pass by me.
“Whether it’s Chaz, whether it’s someone else from another manufacturer, it doesn’t matter. I was going to race them all as hard as I could to get the result for all for all our people.”
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